ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[Bob_McBob]

Is Fairview the only location with park and ride? Apparently Conestoga Mall is giving people parking tickets if they park there to try ION.

[D40LF]

Fairway Station is indeed the only station with a park and ride lot. The region really dropped the ball on this one.

I’ve been using the lot next to the Rumpel Felt. Officially, it’s only free for GO train commuters who arrive before 7:10 AM but the machine on site hasn’t worked for years so they have no way of verifying.

As for Conestoga Mall, it sounds like they won’t get my business moving forward. ?

[danbrotherston]

The 'second entrance' at Frederick (see also Kitchener Market and Borden) is, I believe, signposted as emergency only for legal reasons. It saves them from making it accessible or formalizing a crosswalk, but any able-bodied person who feels safe using it is free to do so.

Well at least as free as anyone is to cross the road at any point, which is to say there is no law, and no fence but it isn't intended, which is the problem.

[MidTowner]

Taking it this morning, it seems the departure time information is still not up and running. There was an announcement about "delays in the system" on the platform: my train was on time, but after I got off there was a train arriving in the same direction only about three minutes later.

The walkability to the stations is quite bad, the more I think about it. The GRH example seems egregious. So are several others, to varying actual impacts.

At Northfield, the only official exit (I guess) is at the north end of the platform, only walking east. Officially, you are supposed to snake around. In practice, when a train arrives and passengers disembark, they walk up the middle of the platform, around a guard wire (either on the tracks or not) and, if walking west, either stand awkwardly behind (I mean on the train side of) the crossing arms or duck under them. The whole exercise looks and feels pretty ridiculous.

[ert86]

Maybe it's because I took it at 6:30 but the park n' ride lot was completely empty, It was also the worst ride of the 5 I've taken so far. Not because of ION, but because I was sitting behind a bunch of elderly armchair critics. I didn't want to get into it with them, but if I bit my tongue any harder I would have bitten through it.

[MidTowner]

Fairway Station is indeed the only station with a park and ride lot. The region really dropped the ball on this one.

I’ve been using the lot next to the Rumpel Felt. Officially, it’s only free for GO train commuters who arrive before 7:10 AM but the machine on site hasn’t worked for years so they have no way of verifying.

As for Conestoga Mall, it sounds like they won’t get my business moving forward. ?

I agree with this, but it was Northfield that they identified as a potential park-and-ride site, though that doesn't make much sense to me. Where were the spots ever going to go?

I can see why Conestoga Mall wouldn't want to maintain parking spots for people who are going to take transit to spend their money elsewhere. I don't have a good sense of how much parking charge infrastructure costs, but maybe they could levy a small charge and offer validation in the mall. I can see how that might not be worth their while, either.

My prediction would be that, once the initial surge in demand abates, they stop issuing fines as long as the number of vehicles are not out of hand. Which I would expect they wouldn't be.

[jamincan]

Travel in KW by car is generally not problematic except possibly at the busiest times (and even then it's not terrible and is usually localized to very specific spots). Park and Ride lots therefore have a lot less appeal. If someone is already driving a car to the park and ride, the economics of paying for transit for the final leg of the trip are pretty weak.

[MidTowner]

The cost of parking at the universities is the only thing that would drive demand for a park and ride, I think. You're right that, traffic being so light in the region, driving is easy. So I wouldn't imagine that people leaving their cars at LRT stations will be much of an issue anywhere, after this week.

[ijmorlan]

How does Conestoga Mall identify illegally parked vehicles? It seems to me that, since the parking is free, the only difference between illegal and legal parking is whether the occupants went into the mall. It’s not a validation system or something like that.

[Rainrider22]

When they got on with the Second Phase of ION, they should put a park and ride stop. This way people coming into the city could park and ride the train to where they want to go...

[robdrimmie]

I did a bit of searching to find the bylaws that describe Conestoga Mall's parking regulations but couldn't. My guess is that there's a limit on how long you can park there - 2 hours perhaps - and they are ticketing violators.

[Rainrider22]

If I was shopping there and longer than two hours, and came out to find a ticket, no problem, but you will never get my business again.

[robdrimmie]

I mean, it's speculation about a rumoured situation so don't place too much stock in my guess. Has anyone posted a first-person story of getting a ticket at Conestoga Mall? I just did a quick scan through r/kitchener and r/Waterloo and don't see anything, but I don't pay much attention to facebook.

[KevinL]

I agree with this, but it was Northfield that they identified as a potential park-and-ride site, though that doesn't make much sense to me. Where were the spots ever going to go?

There's space across Northfield going spare - a lot behind the fire station is currently used by the Nissan dealership for overflow of their inventory.

[Bob_McBob]

How does Conestoga Mall identify illegally parked vehicles? It seems to me that, since the parking is free, the only difference between illegal and legal parking is whether the occupants went into the mall. It’s not a validation system or something like that.

I'd imagine it's the same way as places like University Plaza that monitor people leaving the property to issue them parking fines.